ASIA MARKET CLOSE | Chip Selloff Drags Seoul Down 3.3% and Tokyo Lower as Hong Kong Bucks Trend on Pharma Strength

According to Nikkei Asia, RTHK and UDN Money, Asian equities were mixed on Monday as fresh concerns over AI safety and a spike in oil prices weighed on technology and chip shares, while Hong Kong reversed early losses. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 closed down 518.35 points, or 0.81%, at 63,492.99. SoftBank Group tumbled 11% after ChatGPT maker OpenAI said it would delay its initial public offering and backed calls to slow the development of increasingly powerful AI models. Among chip-related names, Advantest fell 2.02% and Tokyo Electron eased 1.03%, while Sony bucked the trend to gain 4.30%. Seoul's KOSPI was the region's biggest decliner, sliding 225.54 points, or 3.26%, to close at 6,684.37 as chipmakers led losses. Samsung Electronics dropped 4.05% and SK Hynix fell 6.35%, hit by the same AI-slowdown worries pressuring semiconductor demand expectations. Hong Kong stocks recovered from an early drop of more than 140 points to finish higher, with the Hang Seng Index up 111.97 points, or 0.45%, at 24,917.60 on main-board turnover of about HK$192.6 billion. The Hang Seng Tech Index slipped 2 points to 4,317. Pharmaceutical names led blue chips, with WuXi Biologics, WuXi AppTec and Hansoh Pharmaceutical each rising about 5% or more, while HSBC and Hong Kong Exchanges added around 1%. AI model developers fell, as Zhipu dropped 9% after announcing a share placement and bond issue totaling about HK$39.3 billion, and MiniMax lost nearly 7%. Chip stocks were sold off, with SMIC down nearly 3% and Hua Hong Semiconductor off nearly 5%. Tencent closed at HK$431.00, up 0.61%; Xiaomi rose 3.03% to HK$27.16; Alibaba fell 1.49% to HK$105.90. Taiwan's TAIEX closed down 322.33 points, or 0.70%, at 45,862.52, with foreign investors net sellers for a third straight session. TSMC fell 1.24% to close at NT$2,380, while Fubon Financial rose NT$5.5 to a record closing high of NT$154. Market turnover shrank to about NT$630.9 billion, among the lowest this year. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 0.07%, the Shenzhen Component fell 0.64% and the ChiNext Index dropped 1.1%. Pharmaceutical, cultivated-diamond and cybersecurity shares advanced and banks firmed, while agriculture, defense and media names retreated. Combined turnover on the two bourses was 1.63 trillion yuan, down 342.7 billion yuan from the prior session, with more than 3,100 stocks rising.